Lahontan Gold Corp. (TSX.V: LG) (OTCQB: LGCXF) reported initial results from its 2026 Sonic core drilling program at the Santa Fe Mine Project, revealing that a historic “low-grade” stockpile contains substantially higher gold and silver grades than originally classified. The drilling confirmed significant mineralization in material adjacent to Heap Leach Pad Two, which the company believes may be suitable for low-cost future reprocessing. Cyanide-extractable gold assays averaged more than 30%, indicating favorable heap-leach characteristics.
The nearly 100-hole Sonic drilling program has now concluded across the site’s four historic heap leach pads. Results from six additional holes in the low-grade stockpile are expected shortly. The program is designed to define resources remaining in historic heap leach pads and stockpiles that could provide a lower-cost source of future processing material as the company advances its goal of restarting production at the Santa Fe Mine in 2027.
The Santa Fe Mine had past production of 359,202 ounces of gold and 702,067 ounces of silver between 1988 and 1995 from open pit mines utilizing heap-leach processing. The project holds a Canadian National Instrument 43-101 compliant Indicated Mineral Resource of 1,539,000 oz Au Eq (48,393,000 tonnes grading 0.92 g/t Au and 7.18 g/t Ag, together grading 0.99 g/t Au Eq) and an Inferred Mineral Resource of 411,000 oz Au Eq (16,760,000 tonnes grading 0.74 g/t Au and 3.25 g/t Ag, together grading 0.76 g/t Au Eq), all pit constrained. The company plans to continue advancing the Santa Fe Mine project towards production, update the Santa Fe Preliminary Economic Assessment, and drill test its satellite West Santa Fe project during 2025.
The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Michael Lindholm, CPG, Independent Consulting Geologist to Lahontan Gold Corp., who is a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101. For more information about Lahontan Gold Corp., visit www.lahontangoldcorp.com. The full press release is available at https://ibn.fm/a0odu.
